Wywires Silver to Platinum interconnects. How big an upgrade would that be ?


I currently have Silver RCAs on my solid state phono stage. Impressive cable, so I am thinking of trying Platinum. Would be buying used. I also have Tchernov Reference MK II and Purist Neptune in my system. Wywires Silver and the Tchernov are similar, I would say the former has more elegance and the latter a little more power of delivery. Neptune is very different and works great everywhere in my system but best between preamp and amp.
inna
I actually got acquainted with WyWires almost by an accident. I was not going to do any upgrades in the near future, I just wanted to add heaphone amp to my system for night time listening. So I looked and read around a little and Burson Audio original Soloist caught my eye. And since I thought this would not be a critical listening anyway I would use some entry level cables from my Redgum integrated tape outs. But, the Soloist is also a Class A preamp, and when I received it first thing I did out of curiosity was to put it between the source and the integrated. The Redgum has a passive preamp section and the Burson has three gain level settings - great idea. Also, the Redgum doesn't even have amp in input, I plugged the Burson right into the line in input. And it has been staying there ever since. It improved the sound in almost every aspect except resolution, which might be very very slightly down. Soundstage remained the same or a touch better. Well, now I needed real cables, and since I couldn't find any used Purist Neptune or Tchernov Reference MK II, that work very well in my system, I somehow thought that WyWires could complement them. And the Silver did. I expect the Platinum to take it further. Putting $1800 interconnect on $1200 phono stage is somewhat extravagant, though before I inserted the Burson in the chain I had $1500 Tchernov there. I don't have a high resolution system, it is a very solid mid-fi, but the system is very sensitive and can be taken to a totally different performance level with great cables and power cords. I tried $100-$700 cables and cords before I settled for what I have now, it was totally inadequate, though not a bad sound.
I had a Redgum RGI 120 ENR and it was the best solid state amp I had heard. Not very well known.
WyWires silvers of course. Talk about slam, it had it. Should not have sold it. It was actually too much for my room. It made me treat my whole room.
Currently using a Rogue Cronus Mag ll and my special tube sauce. Love tubes.
Enjoy !
The weak point of Redgum is the power supply - the amp plays great when the wall current is good and it sounds like crap when it isn't. I have the original RGi120 made in 2001, considered by some best sounding. Perhaps it was designed for different time, not that I would expect top power supply in $1.5k integrated, but still it could've been better. I've had it for seven years and would only upgrade to Gryphon or some Swiss integrated if I wanted to continue with integrated amps, which in fact I don't but might have to.
Got them today, unexpectedly earlier than I thought.
They appear to be fully burnt in but I'll see. This is preliminary because I only listened with Grado RS1 Classic headphones and Burson Soloist headamp. I also made recording directly off the phono stage on Maxell Vertex tape, Nakamichi 682ZX tape deck, and listened thru the Naks headphone amp.
The results of both comparisons were the same. Alex's choice of words "considerably better than Silver" was absolutely correct.
Please understand that the Silver is a really excellent cable but..
The Platinum sounds deeper, fuller, more confident, a touch warmer with better instrument and note separation. More sophisticated while maintaining a kind of soaring elegance to it. Silence is even more silent.
Overall it just sounds significantly nicer and more natural. It feels like a complete design, something was to a degree missing in the Silver that is not in the Platinum. Definitely less distortion and more details.
I'll get back to this next week when I have an opportunity to listen thru speakers.
Alex of WyWires has said that the cables should settle for about 30 hours after not being used for some time, so I'll post in a few weeks.